Kalmaks of East Desht-i Kipchak in Russian and Western European sources of the XV-XVI centuries

It is now believed that the name «Kalmyks» was concerned with Oyrats who came to the territory of Kazakhstan in the early 17th century. Russian and Western European documents write about Kalmaks since the fifteenth century. Ivan’s IV Decree of 1574 directed the Stroganoffs to trade with Kazaks, Kalmaks and Bokharans. New data show that in Ancient Rus they knew about Kalmaks from personal contacts with them. The name “Kalmak” existed and was often used in Russia in the XVI century: Kalmak, priest, 1545, Novgorod; Kalmak Vlas'ev, Landowner, Yaroslavl, 1568; Fedor Ivanovich Kolmak Ovtsyn, 16th century; Peter and Isaac Kolmakovs, 1564, Olonets; Kolmak and Neustroy Borisoviches Obmtins, 1568, Yaroslavl; Kolmak and Domachnoy (Domachny) Mikhailovich Vaskovs, 1568, Yaroslavl; Ivan Kolmak, Ondreev Khorlamov’s son, a Landowner in Cherenchitckoy church yard, 1539; Kolmak Ivanov Starkov’s son, boyar’s son in Tver, 1585; Ivan Kolmak - oprichnik of Ivan IV; Ambassador, Ryazan Kazak, Kolmak etc. In Sofia library there is a list of Tatar land surrounding the Caspian Sea in 1506 and 1523, which has the name “Kalmaks” along with the Crimea, Astrakhan (Astrakhan Khanate), Azov, Saray, Nogays (Nogay Horde), Shibans (Uzbekistan) and Kazan (Kazan Khanate), etc. Besides there are documents writing about the struggle between Nogays and Kalmaks to the East of the Volga River in 1535, 1556, 1560, 1578. West European travellers and geographers Jenkinson (1558), A. Vid (1537), S. Gerbersteen (1526), M. Mekhovskiy (1521), Fra-Mauro (1459), A. Contarini (1475) etc. wrote about Kalmaks and marked them on the maps. The earliest mention of Kalmaks in the Russian Chronicles refers not to 1574, as it is considered, but to 1486. «Likhachev’s chronicler» says about Kalmaks on the Ugra River in 1480. The Siberia’s Chronicles of the conquest of Siberia also write not about the Oyrats but about the Kalmaks who lived in the Desht-i Kip-chak. The data of Russian and Western European sources are consistent with Arab, Persian and Turkic historical works of the 15th and 16th centuries. Kalmaks played a significant role in the political life of the State structures of Kazakhstan, Central Asia and Volga region long before the arrival of the Oyrats here. One can assume that the origin of Volga Kalmyks is due not only to the Oyrats from Mongolia and Djungaria, which is a clearly established fact, but also to the Kalmaks of Central Asia, Kazakhstan and South Siberia.

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